Improve Mass Transit Service with DFI’s COM Express

Providing Improved Mass Transit Service with DFI’s COM Express With increased urbanization in Korea, the vast majority of the population now chooses to travel by rail. As a national operator of railway lines, Korail recognized the need to improve its services due to consumer demands and the modernization of mass transit. One major project that Korail wanted to undertake was to upgrade the ticket vending machines (TVM) at stations across the entire railway network. Studies have shown that ticketing experience plays a vital part in customers’ perception of transit service quality. Thus, having fault-proof and easy-to-use TVMs became imperative in the enhancement of customer satisfaction. Since commissioning such a project would require substantial effort and capital investment, Korail had decided to start by replacing the TVMs at stations within the Seoul Metropolitan Subway system, where machine usage was the heaviest, and gradually move towards the completion of the full upgrade. Through collaboration with other hardware suppliers and system integrators, DFI contributed to the successful upgrade of the TVMs at major subway stations in Seoul.

The Challenge Seoul Metro is one of the world’s busiest subway systems with a ridership of more than eight million passengers per day. High volume of travelers means more ticket transactions and heavier loading for the TVMs, causing many incidences of machine breakdown. TVM plays a crucial part in customer service, revenue collection, and operational efficiency; problems such as impeded traffic flow, long queues, missed trains, and extra workload for station staff would occur when the TVMs malfunction. After years of operations, the TVMs at Seoul Metro stations were due for an upgrade. Korail was looking to enhance the performance and transaction speed of TVMs with a more powerful CPU and chipset. DFI Solution We were introduced to Korail through a local client of our long-term channel partner, GIBKorea. After conducting a thorough evaluation of our products and services, Korail decided that DFI would be the ideal partner to collaborate with. Upon learning Korail’s requirements, we proposed to redevelop the machines with DFI COM Express. This COM Express, empowered by Intel Core™ processor and mobile-based Intel chipset, is packed with high performance capabilities to boost the computing and processing speed of the machine with remarkably low power consumption. As specified by Korail, cost-efficiency and ease to upgrade were important. COM Express is extremely flexible when it comes to catering to the needs of specific applications. By adjusting the carrier-board design, it is possible to create an entirely new product. Furthermore, the machine can be upgraded by simply exchanging the module with a better CPU and chipset, which enables long-term cost-saving. With multiple expansion interfaces, DFI COM Express allows various integral components such as ticket dispenser, printer, cash and coin receivers, LCD monitor, coin hoppers and sorters, and etc. to be incorporated via I/O connectors.

DFI COM Express also supports various display interfaces (VGA, LVDS, DDI [HDMI/DVI/DP/SDVO]), allowing flexible implementation of any type of displays capable of delivering rich multimedia experience to the end-users. To ensure that our products meet the industrial-grade standard, every product undergoes stringent testing. With MTBF of more than 100K hours and an organizational goal to keep the dppm under 200, DFI COM Express is guaranteed to function smoothly. DFI’s RD and field engineers had provided mechanical consultancy and debugging services from start to finish of the project. We conducted schematic and layout reviews, BIOS customization, as well as offered tools such as design guide and EAPI programming guide to ensure a seamless integration of our product into client’s existing system. Korail was pleasantly surprised by our services and flexibility to refine our offering to meet their specific needs.